21 January 2010
Rotherham Holiday Aid to become a registered charity.
Rotherham's 2010 AGM Report

The Mayor of Rotherham, Cllr Shaukat Ali, thanks Rotherham Holiday Aid for the support it has provided families in the Rotherham area over the past year and wishes it well in becoming a fully registered charity.

John McDonald, Charity Director, and Emma Rowland, Grant & Project Officer, travelled to Rotherham on 21st January 2010 to attend the 21st Annual General Meeting of Rotherham Holiday Aid.  The meeting took place in Talbot Lane Centre and was attended by around 25 people. John and Emma met with all the committee members again, as well as welfare agent Ann Levick and representatives from the Sheffield Family Holiday Fund.

2009: a challenging year

Allan Jackson (pictured above left), Chairman of Rotherham Holiday Aid, welcomed everyone to the meeting and stated that it had been a challenging year for the group in terms of fundraising. 2008 had been an extremely successful year with a total of £21,923 being raised. However, it had already been acknowledged that since this was due in part to four large one-off donations, this success would be hard to match. £16,000 was donated to the Family Holiday Association and the rest was kept back in reserves in order to help 2009’s fundraising effort. A lower target of £13,000 was then set for 2009. Jack Turner (pictured above right) presented this year’s accounts and the figures reflected last year’s predictions. Rotherham Holiday Aid went to tremendous efforts and raised a very respectable £8,696 which was boosted by the reserves from last year’s fundraising. A first instalment cheque for 2010 of £3,000 was subsequently presented to the Family Holiday Association by the Mayor of Rotherham on behalf of Rotherham Holiday Aid.

Looking forward

The big news from Rotherham Holiday Aid was the application they had recently submitted to become a registered charity. They had hoped to have a response before the AGM but unfortunately this had not yet been received. It is hoped that if the group becomes a registered charity they may be able to make more successful trust applications.

Emma Rowland and John McDonald both thanked Rotherham Holiday Aid for all their hard work and said a few words. Emma reflected on the past year’s work in Rotherham which has been the focus of two of the Family Holiday Association’s biggest projects. Ann Levick has been trialling the new online application form and referred 45 families this way in 2009. The healthy breaks project was also mentioned and this saw 12 Rotherham families travel to the Hollowford Centre in Derbyshire for a weekend of eating well and healthy activities. Ann Levick brought a healthy break photo album with her so that people were able to look through it and see what the families did during their weekend in the countryside. Emma also promoted the World’s Biggest Pub Quiz and gave out several organiser booklets and t-shirts which will hopefully lead to more quizzes being organised in Rotherham.

John thanked Rotherham Holiday Aid for all their hard work and gave an update on the Family Holiday Association’s work in 2009. John mentioned his recent meeting with new patron Ruth Rendall and her enthusiasm to promote social tourism in the House of Lords. John reiterated the benefits and logic of social tourism and stated that we hoped that we would be able to take things further in 2010.

The trip to Lapland organised with TUI Travel dominated the end of the meeting.  John showed a video produced by TUI for use on flights this year. The video was very well received and attendees were impressed by the scale of this trip of a lifetime.

Allan Jackson closed the meeting and thanked all at Rotherham Holiday Aid and the Family Holiday Association for their hard work and dedication. The relationship between the Family Holiday Association and Rotherham Holiday Aid is going from strength to strength and the need for access to holidays for low-income families is as great as it ever was. We wish them a successful fundraising year in 2010.